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Molecular Imaging

Molecular imaging is a novel field that combines the global anatomical/physiologic scale of currently available in vivo imaging modalities with the detailed molecular/cellular scale of biochemistry and cell and molecular biology, with the goal of obtaining a visual representation and characterization of biological processes at the cellular/sub-cellular level in living subjects. As such, molecular imaging represents a multidisciplinary effort exploiting the convergence of image-capture techniques, basic cell/molecular biology, chemistry, medicine, pharmacology, medical physics, biomathematics and bioinformatics into a new imaging paradigm.The approach could allow unraveling of complex disease pathways; diagnosis of disease at the earliest causative stages, characterized by the first signs of metabolic or molecular disturbance; and noninvasive real-time monitoring of disease progression and response to therapy in authentic physiologic environments.